Westland to push for national ban

A West Coast mayor wants a national ban on freedom camping.

Freedom campers using the roadside, bush and beaches as toilets had riled people in Hokitika and the surrounding area, Westland District Mayor Maureen Pugh said yesterday.

"It's worse than ever this year for us," said Pugh, who will attend a meeting of the Freedom Camping Forum in Auckland next week. The Tourism Industry Association-led forum will discuss the problem and whether national rules should be introduced.

Pugh said it was important to differentiate between self-contained campervans and those without toilets, known as sleeper-vans.

"My council has instructed me that our opening bid [at the forum] is to ban freedom camping," she said. "The main issue for us is the human-waste issue, and that's the consequence of sleeper-vans."

Residents in the Revell St area of Hokitika said they had had problems with campers disobeying overnight-parking restrictions and relieving themselves nearby.

Sherry Spark said the situation had improved since vehicle access to the beach near her Revell St home was blocked.

Residents had previously been forced to clean up after campers who parked near the beach.

Spark said campers still crept into the nearby Shining Star holiday park to shower.

"I've seen them park across the road, get up at 6.30am, sneak down the back to the Shining Star, have showers and everything, and then come back. That's a bit on the nose," she said.

Shining Star owner John Assen said freedom campers who used his facilities without paying were a problem.

"It's one of those things that's very annoying. You feel you have to patrol and police your own property."

Badly behaved freedom campers spoilt the country for other visitors, he said.

"It certainly affects the clean, green image if there are people s....... on the side of the road."

Pugh said the council's resolution demonstrated "the absolute frustration" of the community.

"There needs to be something consistent rolled out around the country about where it's appropriate and inappropriate to freedom-camp," she said.

This could mean directing people to areas with public toilets nearby, Pugh said.

"The risk we run is that people think, `My God, this country is a big toilet', and that's not great for our image," Pugh said.

- © Fairfax NZ News